Pro Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni On Regrets, The Haters, & The Power Of Belief

Most teenagers aren’t sure what they want to be when they grow up — and that’s totally normal. Many of us adults are still figuring it out too. Yet at 14, Leticia Bufoni wasn’t just thinking about her dream career. She was already establishing herself as a professional skateboarder on an international scale.

After discovering skateboarding in Brazil when she was just 9 years old, Bufoni — now 30 — fell in love with the sport. She enjoyed the challenge of performing tricks, but what she loved even more was being better than the boys she skated with. As the only girl in the skate park, Bufoni was determined to prove herself, practicing every day. It meant begging her friend to let her borrow their skateboard, since she didn’t have one of her own.

No part of skateboarding was easy, and that was exactly why she loved it.

Today, Bufoni is one of the most well-known and celebrated skateboarders in existence. She’s a six-time X Games Gold Medalist, an SLS super Crown Champion, and a five-time Guinness World Record Holder. That even includes the 2023 record of the highest skateboard grind outside the back of a flying aircraft. She also represented Brazil at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and was named in Forbes’ list of The Most Powerful Women in International Sports in 2018.

Bufoni’s list of accomplishments is impressive, but perhaps what’s even more impressive is her dedication to her craft and desire to prove herself. Looking back at her career thus far, she’s never been afraid to take a risk, always betting on herself despite the odds being stacked against her.

I’m a really, really proud Latina, so I’m going to represent my country everywhere I go to inspire the next generation.

The first time she had to prove herself was to her own father when she was just a kid living in Brazil. It was hard for him to accept his daughter’s new favorite pastime, as he saw skateboarding as a boy’s sport. When she finally got her own board, he broke it in half as a warning for her to quit.

Convincing him that she was destined to skate when there wasn’t a lot of female representation in the sport wasn’t easy. “I had no one to show him and say, ‘Hey, I want to be like her,’ or someone to point to and say, ‘I can be a professional skateboarder like her one day, too,’” Bufoni explains.

At the time, social media and the Internet weren’t as readily available as they are now. Finally, a friend gave her a DVD that showed other women skateboarding, and Bufoni rushed to show her dad. Once he watched it, he stopped pressuring her to quit.

Today, it’s important for Bufoni to be the representation she didn’t have as a young child in Brazil. She isn’t afraid to try new endeavors like modeling or acting to show young women — especially young Latina women — that they can be a professional athlete, model, or whatever they want to be, too.

I couldn’t speak the language, and didn’t know anyone...but my passion for skateboarding was bigger than anything else, and I knew I had to stay.

“I’m a really, really proud Latina, so I’m going to represent my country everywhere I go to inspire the next generation,” Bufoni said.

Once Bufoni got her father on board (pun intended), her next hurdle was convincing her family to let her move to the United States at age 14 to pursue her dream of skateboarding professionally — even after she placed last at her first X Games competition in 2007. Despite being ranked first in Brazil, the ramps and tricks in the U.S. were bigger and more complicated than what she was used to. The competition didn’t turn out the way she hoped, but she remained determined to move to America to pursue skateboarding more seriously.

“I got invited to skate the X Games in 2007, and I came with my dad,” Bufoni said. “We were only supposed to stay for two weeks, but when I got here, I just fell in love with California. I met all of my [skateboarding] idols, and realized this was where all the sponsors were.”

The amazing weather, proximity to beaches, and large skateboarding community didn’t hurt, either. Her dad, by then fully in support of her dream, reluctantly agreed to let her stay and live with her manager at the time.

After so much backlash, the win was one of the best moments of my career.

Living far away from her family at the young age of 14 was challenging. To make things more complicated, Bufoni didn’t speak English. Yet, her love for skateboarding outweighed her doubts and fears.

“I was by myself in a different country, experiencing a different culture,” she explains. “I couldn’t speak the language, and I didn’t know anyone. It was really hard. But my passion for skateboarding was bigger than anything else, and I knew I had to stay [in California].”

When asked if she ever felt like quitting, giving up, or moving back to Brazil, Bufoni is confident in her answer: “Never.”

Bufoni has had her fair share of setbacks, but her ability to believe in herself and continue forward has always been the key to her success. The challenges she’s faced along the way have just made the wins that much sweeter. For example, in 2015, after getting into modeling and posing nude for a magazine, she received a lot of hate — especially from other competitors.

I want to keep inspiring girls and young women — not only with skateboarding, but to embrace all sports and live a healthy lifestyle.

“People were saying that I wasn’t focusing on skateboarding anymore because I was doing some modeling and other things. I wanted to prove them wrong,” Bufoni said.

She certainly did, going on to win the first Street League Skateboarding Women’s SLS Super Crown World Championship that year in Chicago.

“After so much backlash, the win was one of the best moments of my career,” she said.

Bufoni isn’t entirely certain about what comes next for her, though she knows it involves skateboarding and inspiring the next generation of female skateboarders and Latina athletes. “I’m blessed to be in the position that I’m in, and I want to keep inspiring girls and young women — not only with skateboarding, but to embrace all sports and live a healthy lifestyle.”